Yes, rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals. We spent a while this morning talking about how we present ourselves on stage, and going over a few of our trickier songs. Altogether three hours of different sorts of choiring before we had a break for lunch – and let me tell you, the Waffle House in the carpark of our hotel was somewhat crowded with choristers – and then got back into rehearsal.

We had a performance this evening, full of “Hurry up and wait!” moments – something the choir members picked up when the choir was on Battle of the Choirs, years ago, and they had to be ready for a strict timeline, then wait around totally ready until it was their time. Lots of rushing and waiting. Tonight was just like that. Rush to get yer uniforms on for the 7pm deadline, wait around for twenty minutes, hurry up and get into your lines in the next area (don’t talk: too close to the stage), wait for ten minutes while the next choir does their thing, file into the next area absolutely ready to go on stage, wait while the choir on stage finishes up, hurry up – it’s your turn – get on! I completely understand why it’s that way – people have a deadline to meet and they’re trying to make things as smooth as possible for the audience. But the contrast in speeds seems funny.

Our performance went well. By which I mean we got a standing ovation and a big case of the warm fuzzies inside! Hopefully this is an indication of how we’ll go in the competition. We rushed off to our dinner at the Duke Centre, where the staff had kindly managed to fit us in since we couldn’t make it before our performance. They had some awesome cake there – a sponge with what tasted like whipped cream in a can (but without the can) on top. Yummerino.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a brief talk and arrangement of uniforms, as tomorrow is the first day of competition. Ahh! How intimidating! But I’ll put a smile on my face and they’ll be none-the-wiser (except you guys, but you won’t tell anyone, so no problems there).